ENGLISH ABSTRACT: A continuous comfort analysis of the whole-body vibration level aboard the
S.A. Agulhas II during the 2013-2014 Antarctic voyage was conducted ac-
cording BS ISO 2631-1:1997, assuming a standing posture. Just noticeable
difference in magnitude testing was conducted on nine subject in the standing
posture on a man-rated shaker in the laboratory environment. Two stimuli,
a 5 Hz sinusoidal stimulus with a magnitude of 0,5 m.s-2 and a slamming
event recoded during the voyage with a magnitude of 0,2 m.s-2 where selected
as the stimuli on which to investigate the just noticeable difference thresh-old. The study shows that the vibration level for the duration of the voyage
can be considered to be not uncomfortable. The results of the just notice-able difference threshold obtained for the sinusoidal stimulus concur with that
found in literature for seated subjects. The just noticeable difference threshold
obtained for the ship stimulus does not correlate with the results for the sinu-soidal vibration, implying that there may be an error in the vertical weighting filter provided by the standard or that Webers law does not hold for the just
noticeable difference threshold of standing subjects.